. . UNITED STATES: POLITICS: POLITICAL PARTIES: REPUBLICAN PARTY, TEA PARTY : INDUSTRIES: PETROLEUM INDUSTRY : POLITICS : POLITICS: PRESSURE GROUPS : LAW: LEGISLATION: Conservative Group's Charity Status Draws Questions . . Conservative Group's Charity Status Draws Questions April 19, 2012 by Peter Overby NPRhttp://www.npr.org/2012/04/19/150984876/ conservative-group-criticized-for-tax-exempt-status
. A shorter URL for the above link: . http://tinyurl.com/cnz3eos . .Yum Brands, the company that owns Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, says it's the latest corporation to break ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council a group that brings state lawmakers and corporate lobbyists together to write legislation.
.Liberal groups are pressuring corporations to abandon ALEC, and a dozen companies have now dropped out.
.This week, ALEC did some damage control. It said it is shutting down its task force on public safety and elections, which wrote controversial measures on voter ID, "stand your ground" and immigration reform.
.But another issue remains. ALEC is a 501(c)(3)charity under the tax code. That means it's not supposed to do any "substantial" lobbying and its donors get a tax write-off for their contributions.
.As a 501(c)(3)charity similar to the Red Cross or a religious congregation ALEC is allowed to do some lobbying. The rule of thumb is up to about 20 percent of the budget. But on ALEC's annual tax returns, where it asks if the organization engaged in any lobbying activities, ALEC officers check "no."
. snip . Taking Action? .ALEC claims nearly 2,000 legislative members state lawmakers who pay token dues and some 300 private-sector members, mostly corporations, which cover the $7 million annual budget.
.The public and private members together create model legislation ready-to-enact packages that the lawmakers take back to their state legislatures.
.Owens says there's a precedent for this case from the 1990s, when he was at the IRS, and it isn't one that would be good for ALEC.
. snip ."An action organization does not qualify for tax-exempt status," Owens says. "The regulations define an action organization as one whose purposes can only be achieved by legislation."
.That's the argument that the good-government group Common Cause made when it asked the IRS to investigate ALEC last summer.
. 'A Very Fine Line' .Common Cause said that ALEC violates the 501(c)(3)limit on lobbying and that it serves the business interests of the corporate donors, not a public, charitable purpose.
."We've actually seen their talking points, that are the same talking points that lobbyists use," says Bob Edgar, president of Common Cause. "We've seen their emails, the same emails that go to legislators, trying to lobby. All of that looks and smells like lobbying to us."
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